Beetle larvae substrate

Excuse the poor title, I had no idea what else to call this.

So, i have begun to make my own substrate for my beetle larvae. I have broken down oak pellets until they are basically the same consistency as dirt or coco fiber, I added the unbleached flour, and the yeast....i am starting to notice white fuzzy mold on top, wondering if this is normal and how long should this process take? I read that it takes 2-3 months. 

 
A lot of us have experienced better results with wheat bran instead of flour. There are a lot of variables to consider. My first batch of sub took almost 8 months (done with flour at around 72f). My most recent batch took around 6-8 weeks (done with bran at around 105f).

The white fuzzy mold is normal. Just mix it all back in thoroughly when you do your daily mixing.

 
A lot of us have experienced better results with wheat bran instead of flour. There are a lot of variables to consider. My first batch of sub took almost 8 months (done with flour at around 72f). My most recent batch took around 6-8 weeks (done with bran at around 105f).

The white fuzzy mold is normal. Just mix it all back in thoroughly when you do your daily mixing.
Holy cow! I wish I had used wheat bran now. If I slap a UTH on the side of the bin, would it speed things up for me?

 
Holy cow! I wish I had used wheat bran now. If I slap a UTH on the side of the bin, would it speed things up for me?
I'm using one, I'm under the impression it gets things started a little quicker. Not sure it helps beyond once fermentation has started.

 
Holy cow! I wish I had used wheat bran now. If I slap a UTH on the side of the bin, would it speed things up for me?
I'll be completely honest, I do not know. I have zero experience with UTHs so I'm not sure if it might, in fact, get too hot directly around where you have it stuck and kill off the yeast in that area.

 
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White moldy looking thing is absolutely a normal behavior presented in fermentation. That white mold-like thing is called hyphae. It will last until fermentation processes. However, you have to stir or mixes up and down to provide and circulate air into it, and as you do that, the hyphae will be destroyed and that is not a problem. it will reappear eventually.

 
I thought I would post here that I started fermenting some aspen wood chips a few days ago. The ambient temperature is about 72-degrees Fahrenheit, and the highest temperature I have recorded in the substrate so far is 92.5-degrees (I am recording temperatures over the fermentation process). I am using wheat flour and thought I followed Ratmosphere's advice on the flour to wood ratio, but I think I may have added a little too much flour because the substrate feels like sticky pizza dough with a lot of wood chips. Will this cause problems for the beetles, or did I reach the right consistency?

 
I'm not sure what the wood chip is that you are referring to. Because the wood chip I know are something large enough that can be broken down to pieces. Something you use for grilling (both to make fire and to fume scent into meats). If you are referring to a soil-like particle, the "substrate," okay. There are many different recipes. I came up with SO MANY recipes even for myself alone. I tried different ways to see how larvae of different species doing.

I haven't read Ratmosphere's post, so I can't say much about his work, but the ratio can actually be ignored depending how much amount you are handling. If you are making a lot, like 100 gallons. You don't have to add anything but just ferment starter. Ferment starter is the important thing for the fermentation. Everything else are just optional additives. Like a supplementary for human health. You don't need it, but can be helpful. I don't know what ratio you added, but I once added more than 20% of wheat flour to the substrate, and never had such problem. Maybe you added and did not mixed up properly. If you add wheat flour to wet substrate, it is pretty difficult to mix it up properly as wheat flour absorbs moisture from substrate, and becomes like a "dough." This might be the cause of problem you are experiencing. Next time if you are adding wheat flour again, try to dry out your substrate ahead. then Mix up the flour and add water into it.

Bran over wheat flour? I don't see a difference. I always succeeded with everything and even with nothing. The reason you are adding such things is to just help fermentation, not triggering or for the main reason of fermentation. Bran or wheat flour, dog food, cat food, anything else (but ferment starter) is to keep or raise temperature. The temperature is important to keep up with the fermentation for enough time to make more and more nutrients (by having microorganisms actively propagate). If you are working with about 20 gallons, you don't need any additives. Just adding ferment starter and store it somewhere warm is ENOUGH. If you are adding wheat flour to make substrate, I would recommend adding about 5 to 15% to amount of substrate. Not by weight, but a rough volume. What do you add other than wheat flour?

*I've made and making hundreds of liters of substrate every summer for over a decade.

I thought I would post here that I started fermenting some aspen wood chips a few days ago. The ambient temperature is about 72-degrees Fahrenheit, and the highest temperature I have recorded in the substrate so far is 92.5-degrees (I am recording temperatures over the fermentation process). I am using wheat flour and thought I followed Ratmosphere's advice on the flour to wood ratio, but I think I may have added a little too much flour because the substrate feels like sticky pizza dough with a lot of wood chips. Will this cause problems for the beetles, or did I reach the right consistency?
 
I'm not sure what the wood chip is that you are referring to. Because the wood chip I know are something large enough that can be broken down to pieces. Something you use for grilling (both to make fire and to fume scent into meats). If you are referring to a soil-like particle, the "substrate," okay. There are many different recipes. I came up with SO MANY recipes even for myself alone. I tried different ways to see how larvae of different species doing.
I am using this product, which is shredded aspen wood for use as small animal bedding: https://www.petsmart.com/small-pet/litter-and-bedding/litter-and-bedding/grreat-choice-aspen-wood-shavings-pet-bedding-3541.html

I haven't read Ratmosphere's post, so I can't say much about his work, but the ratio can actually be ignored depending how much amount you are handling. If you are making a lot, like 100 gallons. You don't have to add anything but just ferment starter. Ferment starter is the important thing for the fermentation. Everything else are just optional additives. Like a supplementary for human health. You don't need it, but can be helpful. I don't know what ratio you added, but I once added more than 20% of wheat flour to the substrate, and never had such problem. Maybe you added and did not mixed up properly. If you add wheat flour to wet substrate, it is pretty difficult to mix it up properly as wheat flour absorbs moisture from substrate, and becomes like a "dough." This might be the cause of problem you are experiencing. Next time if you are adding wheat flour again, try to dry out your substrate ahead. then Mix up the flour and add water into it.
The wood/flour mixture is not too hard to stir, but I just wanted to make sure that I didn't add too much flour for the larvae. I am making about 10 gallons of substrate, and I think I mixed the flour in evenly. The temperature was 93.4-degrees Fahrenheit (34.1-degrees Celsius) last time I checked. Is that a good sign? 

Bran over wheat flour? I don't see a difference. I always succeeded with everything and even with nothing. The reason you are adding such things is to just help fermentation, not triggering or for the main reason of fermentation. Bran or wheat flour, dog food, cat food, anything else (but ferment starter) is to keep or raise temperature. The temperature is important to keep up with the fermentation for enough time to make more and more nutrients (by having microorganisms actively propagate). If you are working with about 20 gallons, you don't need any additives. Just adding ferment starter and store it somewhere warm is ENOUGH. If you are adding wheat flour to make substrate, I would recommend adding about 5 to 15% to amount of substrate. Not by weight, but a rough volume. What do you add other than wheat flour?
I added aspen wood chips, water, wheat flour, about a half cup of sugar, and yeast. 

 
I am using this product, which is shredded aspen wood for use as small animal bedding: https://www.petsmart.com/small-pet/litter-and-bedding/litter-and-bedding/grreat-choice-aspen-wood-shavings-pet-bedding-3541.html

The wood/flour mixture is not too hard to stir, but I just wanted to make sure that I didn't add too much flour for the larvae. I am making about 10 gallons of substrate, and I think I mixed the flour in evenly. The temperature was 93.4-degrees Fahrenheit (34.1-degrees Celsius) last time I checked. Is that a good sign? 

 I added aspen wood chips, water, wheat flour, about a half cup of sugar, and yeast. 
The temperature arose to that much should be a good sign of fermentation. What do you smell, by the way, when you ferment aspen beddings? I never had to make or feed my beetles with aspen. I never heard of anyone trying fermenting with such bedding either honestly. I saw people using grinder and break the pine log (firewood) but not the aspen bedding for small animals.

My assumption on using this is not a great idea as it can take more time to have microorganisms to completely breakdown the "aspen bedding." But well, seeing temperature arose that much is good sign, so I guess it works. I sure would like to see the result for color, overall shape, and smell as well. What do you intend to rear with this? Why did you selected aspen, instead of oak?

 
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Somehow I was not notified of your most recent post on this thread, @JKim. First question: aspen fermentation starts out smelling like wine but eventually smells terrible. Your other two questions can be answered together: I have aspen available in stores nearby and was told on the forum that aspen flake soil is fine for raising beetles. I wasn’t looking to raise any particular type of beetle. 

Also, I need some substrate sooner than it looks like this batch will be done since we had some unusually cold temperatures that halted fermentation (wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact I was forced to move my container into the attic due to the stench of fermentation). I have an egg incubator that can hold temperatures well above 100-degrees. Could I put a small amount of wood in there and get it fermented more quickly? 

 
Somehow I was not notified of your most recent post on this thread, @JKim. First question: aspen fermentation starts out smelling like wine but eventually smells terrible. Your other two questions can be answered together: I have aspen available in stores nearby and was told on the forum that aspen flake soil is fine for raising beetles. I wasn’t looking to raise any particular type of beetle. 

 Also, I need some substrate sooner than it looks like this batch will be done since we had some unusually cold temperatures that halted fermentation (wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact I was forced to move my container into the attic due to the stench of fermentation). I have an egg incubator that can hold temperatures well above 100-degrees. Could I put a small amount of wood in there and get it fermented more quickly? 
Well, some scarab species prefer pines over hardwood. Some prefer hardwood over pines. Some may be only strictly feed on either one. I know some Asian stag beetles can feed on both okay, but prefers the oaks. Dorcus hopei and Dorcus rectus are examples. They sometime are collected in pine forest, but that rarely happen, so I guess adult female just wondered around and lost the way going back to hardwood forest, and decided to lay some eggs and died.

 
Well, some scarab species prefer pines over hardwood. Some prefer hardwood over pines. Some may be only strictly feed on either one. I know some Asian stag beetles can feed on both okay, but prefers the oaks. Dorcus hopei and Dorcus rectus are examples. They sometime are collected in pine forest, but that rarely happen, so I guess adult female just wondered around and lost the way going back to hardwood forest, and decided to lay some eggs and died.
This seems a little unrelated to my post. Did you mean to post this somewhere else, @JKim

 
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